The chickens of the Sunshine Motel!

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Got some pictures of the babies tonight. Getting big! Starting to identify my roos. Found 2 of my 3 reds, none of the BCW, and so far 4 of my home hatched chicks. I like the looks of a couple of these! I might have to reevaluate if I want just 1 keeper rooster from the bunch or a couple!
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BY Bob said:
They are a lovely bunch. Are you able to let you chickens free range again? I used to live the photos of you chickens free ranging. Your land is gorgeous.
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Right now I have 4 groups of chickens, and only 1 is free-range, but once the non-polish chicks are older they will go out with the rest, and once my polish chicks are bigger, I'll sort out that coop a little, leave a couple of the more interesting roos in and move the rest to the free range flock, where if they are good they stay and if they are wretched they go to freezer camp. 😉
The goal is by fall, which is when I see the most predator pressure, all polish hens and several roosters will be in the sunny coop with the covered run, and everyone else will be partially fenced in my yard
 
So after a great deal of thought, I decided to rehome Hossea. An elderly neighbor with just 2 old spent hens has mentioned before how much she misses having a rooster, and last time I brought her eggs asked if she meant it and wanted Hossea. She did, of course, so day before last I brought him over in the evening.
WELL. Her son and dil and family moved in with her a few years ago, when she started to get very frial, and she mentioned that her daughter was arriving late that night, as her son and his family were headed out on vacation in the wee hours of the morning. I thought nothing of it, other than the usual small talk of where they were going and it was so lovely her daughter was coming to stay....
....until the next day, when I arrived to deliver eggs and found a house in TURMOIL. The daughter, unaware there was a new addition, had opened the coop door on her early morning dog walk, and Hossea was GONE. Missing. Hadn't been seen or heard from in hours. Another neighbor across the woods had been called, and sent her grandson through the woods cross lots with a box of raspberries and strict instructions to keep his eyes and ears open. He arrived with the berries, but no news of Hossea.
Neighbor was sitting on a bench with a can of sunflower seeds in the garden calling for the chickens distraught, her own two fat hens at her feet. Her daughter circling the house and checking under bushes and ferns. The grandson from across the way was sent back through the woods by a different route, with 3 pieces of apple cake in place of berries. I joined in the search, but after several hours it was concluded that he was well and truly hiding.
However!! At dusk he returned! He could not find the coop, and eluded capture from the daughter and escaped again. Since she was reluctant to go far from the house with her mother inside (she is very frail and a fall risk) they called and asked what to do??
I returned.
An hour and a half of shaking through the bushes in the area he was last seen, I finally found him-- up in a tree nearly a quarter of a mile away from the house.

He returned to a hero's welcome!

He is now safe and sound in the coop-- and there he shall stay! For several days, or perhaps a week-- just until he knows where his home is, and who his new people are.
 
Dona Worry said:
So after a great deal of thought, I decided to rehome Hossea. An elderly neighbor with just 2 old spent hens has mentioned before how much she misses having a rooster, and last time I brought her eggs asked if she meant it and wanted Hossea. She did, of course, so day before last I brought him over in the evening.
WELL. Her son and dil and family moved in with her a few years ago, when she started to get very frial, and she mentioned that her daughter was arriving late that night, as her son and his family were headed out on vacation in the wee hours of the morning. I thought nothing of it, other than the usual small talk of where they were going and it was so lovely her daughter was coming to stay....
....until the next day, when I arrived to deliver eggs and found a house in TURMOIL. The daughter, unaware there was a new addition, had opened the coop door on her early morning dog walk, and Hossea was GONE. Missing. Hadn't been seen or heard from in hours. Another neighbor across the woods had been called, and sent her grandson through the woods cross lots with a box of raspberries and strict instructions to keep his eyes and ears open. He arrived with the berries, but no news of Hossea.
Neighbor was sitting on a bench with a can of sunflower seeds in the garden calling for the chickens distraught, her own two fat hens at her feet. Her daughter circling the house and checking under bushes and ferns. The grandson from across the way was sent back through the woods by a different route, with 3 pieces of apple cake in place of berries. I joined in the search, but after several hours it was concluded that he was well and truly hiding.
However!! At dusk he returned! He could not find the coop, and eluded capture from the daughter and escaped again. Since she was reluctant to go far from the house with her mother inside (she is very frail and a fall risk) they called and asked what to do??
I returned.
An hour and a half of shaking through the bushes in the area he was last seen, I finally found him-- up in a tree nearly a quarter of a mile away from the house.

He returned to a hero's welcome!

He is now safe and sound in the coop-- and there he shall stay! For several days, or perhaps a week-- just until he knows where his home is, and who his new people are.
Click to expand...
I'm so glad you were able to help and bring him back home. He could not have been easy to find! 1/4 mile is a serious distance from "home".
 
BY Bob said:
I'm so glad you were able to help and bring him back home. He could not have been easy to find! 1/4 mile is a serious distance from "home".
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I was getting VERY worried we may not find him, and both the neighbor and her daughter felt terrible about the whole thing! But it was no one's fault, she is up this way about every month or so, it is it her usual custom to release the chickens on her morning stroll.
 

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